I have a question about baiting

I have an old buddy and his family farm is near LR, already plan on hunting down there in exchange for some bratwurst making. They're total if its brown its down type hunters, all about that meat.

 

I grew up in Maryland and when I first started, baiting was illegal. Now it's legal and not much has changed. Just makes alittle easier for people to draw deer into a smaller property. I've done it, but haven't in a few years. I wouldn't say I'm more successful one way or the other, just takes different strategies to hunt each way. I think maryland my have change because they were tired of constantly chasing people for illegal baiting. Plus it's a huge money thing, farms make a lot more money off corn by selling it for deer bait. I heard 1 farmer near me was pulling in over 400k a year just in deer corn. Public land is still no baiting.

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that's not necessarily true.

Until a CWD outbreak 2-3 seasons ago, baiting had been legal and very VERY culturally encouraged in Michigan and had been so for decades; even at least as far back as the early 80s when deer population was pretty low. Michigan has a lot of deer now; but not so many that they allow more than 2 total buck tags (rifle or bow.) It wasn't until the early 2000s I think that they allowed more than one buck tag period- but baiting was legal.

Bait production was a fairly significant economic driver for the state's farmers...carrots and sugar beets mostly.

I'm not going to get in to the ethics of baiting. I used to do it a little bit; but don't anymore- nothing to do with laws; I have just never, ever seen a mature buck on bait in daylight during the season. Ever. Not even on camera. Doesn't mean it can't/doesn't ever happen but to educated bucks all it does in my experience is keep them out of range during daylight.

But if you want to smack a young doe or a 1.5 yo buck; bait piles are the cat's meow.

 

I've been known to throw out a corn pile and kill a doe or two. I also know guys who would likely never see a deer if it wasn't for their corn pile and it's not for a lack of herd numbers. I'd say once we get a confirmed cwd, which is only a matter or time given its all around KY, baiting will be no more. I will say corn piles are great for summertime and night pics of bucks but in my experience the older deer avoid them once the velvet is off.

 

Here in NC we are allowed to put out corn for deer. (You bait a hook) Our deer numbers are astronomical; around 1 million. Yet, we hardly put a dent in the numbers. Until 2016, we could kill 4 bucks and 2 does. It has changed now to 2 Buck and 4 Does. I think baiting is allowed when there is less agriculture and there is more wood land. NC is a high density forest state. Some may think putting out corn increases a hunter's opportunity to kill deer. Truthfully, it doesn't changes the odds much. Deer are still as spooky and apprehensive as they are when you hunt a food plot or hardwoods. I think people think that when a hunter puts out corn all of a sudden all the dumb deer walk in, unaware, without a care in the world. Total BS! Younger deer are often times less apprehensive than older deer. If you have hunted long enough, you have seen this. I have hunted in States that allow it and don't and you still get busted. It's still a wild animal and you still have to hunt the wind.

 

Yeh, we have well over 1 million here in VA And we have actually decreased the herd statewide.... But there is no baiting.

 

In Michigan its illegal because its been proven to spread disease. In the eastern states it violates "fair chase" ethics. My observation though, is that anti-baiting laws stop very few folks from doing so.

 

Makes me wish we still had Rancid Crabtree to kick him around on the subject. He would be all self righteous about not baiting....until he got busted for baiting.

 

I use to bait in MD when I had private land to hunt, and when I lived there, in SC now. I don't feel like it made it necessarily easier to hunt over. Although the deer were more apt to come to it, it also made them easier to spook in my case. Hunting on the top of a mountain with no farm fields close by made it harder. Then I started hunting public land and haven't gone back since. I may not get a lot of shot opportunities on public, But I've found the reward to be much greater.

 

Our old crew also use to bait when it was legal, and stopped when it became illegal. We did have an issue, more than once, where we found bait within shooting distance of a couple of their blinds. When your rarely ever on your own property, things like that happen more than you might think.

 

Honestly, it's a double sided coin with some valid reasoning on both sides.

You can research and find articles and even a few studies by wildlife biologists that based on a variety of opinions "can increase chance" "may" or even "do" increase disease transmission. This tends to be the main reason many states have stated at least at some point in their internal discussions.

Others will state it is a density issue and not a baiting issue which triggers or holds the highest disease transmission risk.

Others refute or claim the "claimed risk" is merely speculation and is a falsehood merely claimed as a truth.

Fair chase argument also can and does become an issue for some states.